How to Create Digital Products to Sell Online
Unless you’ve been a Social Media hermit lately, you’ll have seen numerous posts talking about creating digital products to sell online and generate passive income streams.
Selling digital products has become a highly lucrative business opportunity, a business that can be started by anyone.
You may be confused about where or how to start with digital products. Or you may feel that you don’t have the skills or knowledge to create a digital product (which is simply not true and I’ll show you why a little later).
In this guide, I’ll walk you through the essentials of creating and selling digital products online, covering everything from understanding what digital products are to finding the right marketplaces to showcase and sell your creations.
Why Sell Digital Products?
If you’re looking for a way to make money online then selling digital products is a fabulous option and one that offers so much more than just a financial benefit, such as:
- Make money from home or work from anywhere
- Low start up costs
- A Global audience
- Time Freedom / Flexibility
- Locational Freedom
- Spending time with Family
- Easy to Scale
- Passive Income
The beauty of selling digital products is that you create your product one time, but you can sell it an unlimited amount of times. There’s no inventory to manage and the overheads are low. It is an extremely passive form of income.
Digital products unlock the dream lifestyle – work from anywhere in the world, make money while you sleep, and earn profits long-term with a single creation.
What are Digital Products?
Digital products are intangible goods that can be downloaded, streamed, or accessed online. Unlike physical products, digital products are essentially files that customers purchase, download and consume. They do not have a physical form. Digital products can be anything from eBooks and software to courses and templates. These can include but are not limited to:
- eBooks and digital publications
- Online courses and educational materials
- Graphic design assets such as templates, stock photos, and illustrations
- Digital / Printable Art
- Membership Sites
- Editable Templates
- Software and applications
- Music, audio files,
- Video tutorials and webinars
- Photography presets and filters
Top Digital Product Niches
When deciding on the type of digital product you want to create and sell, it’s essential to consider popular niches that have a high demand in the online marketplace. Some of the top digital product niches include:
Finding your Digital Product Niche
Whether you believe it or not you already possess the passions, knowledge, or skills to create a successful thriving digital product business with passive income. In fact every single person has multiple online business ideas in them but the issue is that they don’t know what they are or how to come up with ideas.
A great place to start is brainstorming your hobbies, passions, skills, and life experiences. Think about the things that excite you and identify areas where your expertise could shine. Consider the activities that bring you joy and the skills you’ve honed over time.
Examples of skills, hobbies, passions or life experiences you can monetize are:
- Portrait Photography
- Baking Sourdough Bread
- Freezer Meal Prepping
- Bookkeeping
- Losing Weight during Menopause
- Sleep Training Your Child
- Surviving Divorce
- Furniture refinishing
The possibilities are endless. Choosing a niche that aligns with your expertise, passions, skills, hobbies or interests makes the creation process more enjoyable and helps you cater to a specific target audience, and that audience becomes your people!
Digital Product Examples:
To give you a better understanding, here are some popular digital product examples:
- Ebook on Decluttering Your home: A comprehensive guide on decluttering your home and simplifying your space
- Online course on social media marketing: An in-depth course teaching marketers how to leverage social media platforms for business promotion.
- Graphic design template bundle: A collection of pre-designed templates for business cards, social media posts, and website banners.
- Home Reno Guide: A guide on how to self manage your home reno with checklists and resources
- Photography Lightroom preset: A set of pre-configured image editing settings for Adobe Lightroom, giving photographs a specific look or style.
- Personal Finance Spreadsheet& Budget Management Guide: Resources to manage your household budget and pay down debt
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How to Create Digital Products
Identify your audience: Research your target audience to understand their needs, pain points, and desires. What problem can you solve for them or help them with
Choose your format: Determine the format that best suits your content, such as eBooks, videos, or audio files.
Create valuable content: Develop high-quality content that provides value and solves your audience’s problems.
Design and branding: Ensure your digital products have visually appealing designs and consistent branding elements.
Polish and finalize: Review, edit, and double-check your digital products for any errors or inconsistencies.
Choose a delivery method: Decide how you will deliver your digital products, either through direct download links or email delivery, as well as which platforms to sell them on.
Price your products: Research similar products in your niche and set a competitive price that reflects the value you provide.
Market and promote: Develop a marketing strategy to promote your digital products, leveraging social media, email marketing, and content marketing tactics.
My favorite and also the most popular and easiest place to create your digital product is with Canva.
Canva is a free design platform that provides lots of options for graphics and templates you can use. It’s super easy to learn, very user friendly and lets you create and download your products in lots of different formats. Canva is my business BFF and the tool I use the most for creating not only my products but all my marketing materials.
Where to Sell Digital Products
Depending on what you have decided to create as your product, there are a number of digital product marketplaces available to sell on.
- Stan Store: This is by far my favorite and the easiest for beginners to set up and get started with. It
- Your own website: Creating your own website or online store allows you to have complete control over your branding, pricing, and customer interactions.
- E-commerce platforms: Platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce provide easy-to-use features for selling digital products directly to customers.
- Marketplaces: Digital marketplaces such as Etsy, Creative Market, and Gumroad enable you to reach a wider audience and tap into their existing customer base.
- Online learning platforms: Sites like Udemy, Teachable and Skillshare offer the opportunity to create and sell online courses in specific niches.
- Social media platforms: Leverage social media platforms by setting up a store on Facebook or Instagram, or simply promote your products organically to drive traffic to your website or marketplace.
Done-For-You Digital Products
If the creation process seems overwhelming or you lack the necessary skills, you can explore done for you digital products (DFY). These are ready-made products that you can purchase and sell as your own. It’s a very popular way of starting an online business quickly, allowing you time to develop your own products later as you get to know through interaction with your customers as to what other products they would like.
DFY products are available for most types of businesses, niches and products.
When purchasing a DFY product look specifically at how the product creator will let you use the product as there are several types of license.
- Master Resell Rights (MRR) – You can purchase a product that you did not create and resell it as your own, usually with MRR. You keep 100% of the profits. You can not edit this product and are bound by the creator as to how much you can sell it for.
- Private Label Rights (PLR) / White Label – This allows you to sell or giveaway a product while retaining 100% of the profits. You keep 100% of the profit, but cannot resell it with PLR attached. You can edit this with your own branding and voice.
Where to Find Done For You Products:
You can google your niche+PLR (or MRR) to find done for you products in your niche. I also recommend the following places to look for ideas:
Marketing Your Digital Product
Once you have your product, and your sales platform sorted, it’s time to decide how you are going to market your product and create a marketing plan.
The details of your plan should include where you are going to be marketing your product: Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Blogging, Paid Ads etc. Think about where your audience hangs out or consumes information. I recommend picking one medium to start with such as Instagram and add others over time. Trying to master all platforms at once will be overwhelming and may lead to burn out.
Creating and selling digital products online can be a rewarding and profitable venture. Whether you choose to create your own products or opt for done-for-you solutions, remember that success often comes with persistence, continuous improvement, and delivering exceptional value to your customers.
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